Kelly Olynyk put his strained left shoulder to the test Monday on the practice court at AmericanAirlines Arena. Whether the shoulder is ready for a return to the Miami Heat's rotation remains on hold.
Held out the past six games after injuring the shoulder in a Feb. 5 loss to the Orlando Magic, Olynyk said Monday the question now is whether feeling good is good enough.
"It's fun to get back into it, just tested it out, try a little stuff here and there," he said after his first five-on-five work since he was caught on a screen by Magic center Bismack Biyombo. "But it felt pretty good. Obviously, still, I'm not 100 percent to where it was, but it's on its way."
Olynyk said pain, stiffness and limitations remain.
'Yeah, a little bit of everything," he said. "It just doesn't feel like my right shoulder. So, if you know that, then you know it's not the same."
He was non-committal about a return Tuesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers, the second game of a five-game homestand.
"We'll see," he said. "Definitely see how it responds in the morning, how shootaround goes and then go from there.
"It felt all right. It's good to get out there, test it out. There's obviously some stuff that wasn't as easy to do as other stuff, but it felt all right."
Coach Erik Spoelstra said more remains to be seen.
"I don't have a timetable, still," he said. "It wasn't a training-camp practice. There was a little bit of contact, He was able to participate in that. We'll have to see how he feels, how he responds [Tuesday], and take the next step."The Heat have gone 2-4 in Olynyk's absence.
"You want to be out there helping your team. It's easier if we're winning," he said. "You can sit out all day if you're winning. But when we're not, you definitely want to be like, 'I could have been out there, doing one or two things, maybe flip that scoreboard.' "
Trainer Jay Sabol cleared Olynyk for the return to practice.
"It was an encouraging sign this morning that Jay said he has the green light to go. I said OK," Spoelstra said. "And then we'll go to the next step and see if he has a green light to go to shootaround [Tuesday] and the next step after that."
Olynyk said he appreciates the caution from the team's medical staff.
"I mean, you've got to listen to 'em," he said. "They know what they're doing. If I went through 10 years of school, I would listen to myself. They know what they're doing and they know what they're talking about, so I'll definitely follow their guidance. But you know how your body feels more than anybody else, and that's important, as well."
Olynyk said he is confident his return will come at some point this week, with the Heat hosting the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night and the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night.
"It all depends on how it responds and how it takes contact and how it takes physical exertion, really," he said. "But definitely that looks right."
Crowded field
Not only is Olynyk moving closer to a return, but Rodney McGruder's two-game rehab stint in the G League was scheduled to end after Monday's appearance with the developmental-league Sioux Falls Skyforce.
That had Spoelstra discussing a potentially robust rotation.
"Who knows?" he said. "Guys will be impacted. You have to be willing to sacrifice also if you want to accomplish something greater than whatever you are right now.
"These are high class challenges. These are the kinds of challenges you want. It means you have good basketball players buying and competing for time. We haven't had that since training camp and this would be a good thing for us, a good thing for our team."
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